I often get the feeling that many of our modern ailments are directly related to our modern diet and the mass-production of food. Even whole, non-processed foods like fresh fruits and vegetables lose nutritional value from our modern agri-business farming methods. We are left feeling sluggish so we drink more coffee. We have trouble sleeping so we pop Ambien. We feel under-nourished, even with all we eat, so we eat more. But mostly what is missing is really what is missing - all the nutrients we used to get from the small farming practices of healthy land, seasonal growing, and local food suppliers.

I am one of many in the First World that is seeking the Silver Bullet, the magical missing ingredient from my daily routine that will enable me to feel truly healthy.

I have inherited my mother's thyroid (under-active) and my father's kidneys (polycystic). These two pre-existing conditions impact my metabolism, how my body absorbs and processes the food I eat, and leave me prone to fatigue, both physical and mental, a constant source of frustration for me. The physical fatigue can usually be alleviated with a short nap. The mental fatigue is much trickier. My concentration breaks, I lose focus, my ability to make decisions is impaired, and then nothing works out right.

Over the years, I have tried any number of things to increase the effectiveness of the thyroid medication (there is no medication for the kidneys. Yet.) to clear the brain fog. These have included:

Coral calcium

Colloidal silver

Maca

HGH

Bikram yoga

Energy work

Regular cleanses

Liquid oxygen

Ginseng

Iron supplements

D-3 supplements

B-12 supplements

Trace minerals

Some of these (like coral calcium) had no noticeable effect. Some of these had no noticeable positive impact but had definite negative impacts. (Maca made my feet swell up a whole size and HGH gave me a lovely lady mustache). Many of these brought immediate improvement that was frustratingly short-lived. (Both liquid oxygen and colloidal silver made me feel great. For the first week. Then, everything went back to its previous state, no matter how much I adjusted the dosage.)

The B-12 has been a bit of a godsend, and I actually do have trouble absorbing this nutrient. When I started taking it in liquid form, my appetite changed, my metabolism shot up, and I dropped two sizes so quickly and effortlessly people thought I might be sick. Then I thought I could eat anything and proceeded to do just that and regained the weight.

My latest find appears to be in the same category as B-12 supplements - something that can provide real and permanent good to counterbalance my hampered endocrine system. It's

, the black fulvic acid-spiked water that is gaining a cult-like following. I am among them.

I first found it about 6 weeks ago on our road trip to Wisconsin. We stopped in Breezewood PA to fuel up before hitting the Turnpike, and there it was at the Sheetz gas station. I was curious, so I grabbed a bottle. I would soon regret not grabbing more.

I felt an immediate lift when I drank it - not the adrenaline boost you get from coffee, but a kind of clarity of thought that I do not typically experience. I felt alert, calm, refreshed. I spent the rest of the trip actively looking for more.

When we got back home, I quickly found it at the Whole Foods near my office. And, with a two-bottle-a-day habit, I quickly sold them out. Every week in June.

and is full of trace minerals, most of which occur naturally in topsoil but are missing in the produce grown in greenhouses and through hydroponic means. But just taking a standard trace mineral supplement does not provide the same results, so there is definitely something more. What exactly remains unknown to me.

tout it as a wonder food. It fosters a healthy pH balance in the body and provides essential nutrients missing from our modern diet, it boosts the immune system to speed healing and prevent disease. Personally, it just makes me feel.......better. Healthier. Well. Unimpaired.

I've been drinking the water almost daily for over a month. On the days when I don't have at least one bottle of the stuff, I feel......different. A little tired, a little cranky, a little slow. My peripheral vision seems fuzzy and decisions are difficult.

While I have yet to find out what exactly is in the fulvic trace mineral complex in BLK, I am suspending my "know what you eat" stance. I am beginning to believe the health claims and am quite happily hooked.

To purchase BLK, please note that their website may contain inaccurate information. At least it did for my area. Wegman's does not appear to carry it, but Whole Foods does. For those in Harford County, both Bel Air locations of